Arc Raiders dev apologizes for "mismanaged hype" after launch date confusion

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios is apologizing to the upcoming extraction shooter's community for inadvertently teasing a shadow drop via a countdown ahead of Summer Game Fest. Arc's launch date was finally revealed at SGF earlier this week, but thanks to an alternate reality game (ARG) some players assumed Arc was going to actually come out during the show, or at least have a beta. That didn't happen, and now Embark says it "mismanaged the hype" around the game.

During Summer Game Fest, Embark Studios revealed that Arc Raiders is launching on Thursday October 30. This should've been a huge moment for the multiplayer game, especially following the last playtest's immense success, but for some players it wasn't. That's because earlier this year, the community followed a pretty big ARG tease.

Back in May, Reddit user 'kzrts' found that a Steam update for Arc Raiders contained a link to a countdown website. The end of this countdown seemingly coincided with Friday June 6, the same day as Summer Game Fest. With no launch date in sight at the time, the community began guessing as to what it could mean, with a potential shadow drop on the day of SGF one prevailing theory. Now that the showcase has come and gone, however, there was no surprise release, but the announcement of a launch date instead.

Now that we know when Arc Raiders is coming out, though, the team at Embark Studios has issued a statement surrounding the ARG tease, and apologized for accidentally getting players hopes up.

"In the lead-up to the Arc Raiders date reveal, we put out a countdown to June 6. This gave the false impression that we would be shadow dropping the game. Instead, you found out that Arc Raiders is coming on October 30, making it a countdown to a countdown," Embark writes on Discord. "The frustration and disappointment that followed is 100% our fault.

"The teaser we posted came from a place of genuine excitement. We finally have an actual date! But it's clear that what we saw as playful and hype-building came across as misleading and frustrating to many of you, and we get why. We mismanaged the hype, we misread the situation, and we're so sorry that this led to disappointment.

"We're making this game for you and your reaction to Arc Raiders has been humbling and overwhelming and exciting."

Going forward, Embark says it's focusing on finishing Arc Raiders development ahead of launch in October. "We know that games live and die by polish and quality, balance, and long-term fun. We need this additional time to ensure we can meet your expectations."

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